SAG HARBOR WHALING & HISTORICAL MUSEUM,

The exhibition of Hill Montgomery’s weavings, imbued with personal narrative, opens with a public reception on Saturday, May 18

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The Parrish Art Museum has selected Bridgehampton-based multimedia artist Candace Hill Montgomery (American, b. 1945) as one of two participants in the 2019 Parrish Road Show, the Museum’s creative off-site exhibition series featuring temporary projects by East End artists to connect creativity to everyday life. Recently, Hill Montgomery has focused her practice on weavings that reflect her life as well as current political/sociological issues. Approximately 25 of the weavings will be featured in the exhibition Hills & Valleys at the Sag Harbor Whaling & Historical Museum, from May 17 – June 16, 2019. The location has deep meaning for Hill Montgomery, who spent summers in Sag Harbor from the age of ten. In addition to this off-site exhibition, the Parrish Art Museum will feature works by both 2019 Road Show artists (Hill Montgomery and Laurie Lambrecht) in the Museum from May 10 – November 10, 2019.

“I am thrilled to showcase Candace’s magnificent new weavings—they bring to life the layered and richly textured stories from the artist’s own experiences and her discerning observations of the world we live in,” said Corinne Erni, Senior Curator of ArtsReach and Special Projects. “There is a distinct sense of assertion, sense of humor, and originality in these works that demand to be seen.”

Hill Montgomery’s work addresses issues of race, feminism, poverty, and the environment, balanced by the artist’s personal poetic lyricism. She weaves complex layers of her life experiences, fabricated narratives of political figures and celebrities, and references to current social and political challenges into her abstract artworks. Each weaving invites the viewer to delve into its very fiber to understand the many layers of shapes and narratives.

Hill Montgomery uses found objects or vintage farm equipment parts from the South that reference her heritage to mount the weavings. She carefully chooses her threads, favoring handspun wool that absorbs dye unevenly thus producing nuanced colorations, as well as organically dyed yarns like cochineal, turmeric, and tansy. Her handmade looms produce irregularities that honor the uneven, individual qualities of artmaking. The varied materials and deliberately imperfect techniques bring strength and softness to tragicomedy contemporary narratives of particular concern to her: hunger, access to clean water, and homelessness. These issues are illuminated by titles such as migrant kids dying & lock um up & all that wall space.

The artist’s interest in the sewing arts traces back three generations to her great-grandmother, who owned a design and dressmaking store in Washington Heights, New York, as well as to her grandmother who taught her knitting, embroidery, and crocheting as a child. Today, Hill Montgomery uses a wide variety of threads: linen, cashmere, cotton, Japanese indigo, Italian mohair, sheep’s wool, Cotswold wool, plied or unplied; camel, yak, and horse hair; beads and metals.

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Candace Hill Montgomery

After a successful career in New York as a high fashion model in the 1960s working with designers such as Bill Blass, Oscar de la Renta, and Anne Klein, Hill Montgomery became a part of the city’s art scene beginning the late ‘70s, working in disciplines including photography, sculpture, painting, poetry, and performance. She relocated to the East End of Long Island in 2011 and focused on painting and, more recently, weaving.

Hill Montgomery’s work has been presented in exhibitions at major arts institutions, including the Bronx Museum for the Arts, New Museum, Printed Matter, Artists Space, Franklin Furnace, Fashion Moda, and Creative Time, among others. She was an artist-in-residence at the Studio Museum Harlem (1979), and a recipient of the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship (1985) and the National Endowment for the Arts (1981). In 1985, Hill Montgomery curated a solo exhibition of Lorna Simpson‘s work with Lucy R. Lippard titled Working Women/Working Artists/Working Together at Gallery 1199. Her work is in the Digital Archive of the New Museum. Her essays have been published in the Women’s Art Journal. She received a master’s degree in Art Education from Hunter College.

Parrish Road Show 2019 is made possible, in part, by the generous support of The Dorothy Lichtenstein ArtsReach Fund, established by Agnes Gund; Deborah Buck Foundation; and Jane Wesman and Donald Savelson. Public funding provided by Suffolk County.

Parrish Road Show

In 2019, the Parrish Art Museum will present the eighth annual iteration of Parrish Road Show, its highly anticipated, creative off-site cultural engagement program. Every year, East End artists are invited to create new work for temporary projects and engage residents in their process. To deeply connect art and creativity to everyday life, the exhibitions take place at public sites across the region—cultural and historical organizations, public parks and highways, and community centers—and the artists offer public talks and artmaking workshops for children and adults. Road Show 2019 features projects by Candace Hill Montgomery (opening spring 2019) and Laurie Lambrecht (opening fall 2019).

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The Sag Harbor Whaling & Historical Museum

The mission of the museum is to preserve, interpret and promote the culture of Sag Harbor through its collection of historical objects related to the village’s whaling history, as well as the presentation of contemporary exhibits and events that reflect the culture of the village today and put Sag Harbor’s past and present into context. Built in 1845, the building was originally the home of Benjamin Huntting II, the owner of whaling ships. The building was designed by the architect Minard LaFever who incorporated exquisitely detailed plaster ceilings and carved wooden door frames inside, with the temple-fronted portico and ornate Corinthian columns on the outside. Upon visiting the Museum in 1998, President Clinton enticed the First Lady initiate the process of declaring the building a National Treasure. It is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Parrish Art Museum

Inspired by the natural setting and artistic life of Long Island’s East End, the Parrish Art Museum illuminates the creative process and how art and artists transform our experiences and understanding of the world and how we live in it. The Museum fosters connections among individuals, art, and artists through care and interpretation of the collection, presentation of exhibitions, publications, educational initiatives, programs, and artists-in residence. The Parrish is a center for cultural engagement, an inspiration and destination for the region, the nation, and the world.